Major biomedical research award given to longtime Faculty of Medicine member

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Posted March 25, 2010

By Kyle Glennie

Paul Kubes, PhD: photo by Janelle PanOne of the Faculty of Medicine’s most high profile researchers has been chosen as the winner of the 2010 Henry Friesen award, given jointly by the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation (CSCI) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.  Paul Kubes, PhD, the director of the Calvin, Phoebe and Joan Snyder Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, will officially receive the award at the 2010 CSCI Annual Conference later this year.

“It feels great to win this award, and when you see who has won in the past I was certainly not expecting it,” says Kubes.  The past winners he refers to include some of the most influential and well known researchers and scientists in Canada.  The award–named after Dr. Henry Friesen, who revolutionized health funding in Canada as the founder of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research–recognizes a distinguished Canadian scientist who has demonstrated leadership in developing biomedical research at local, national and international levels.

Kubes has spent nearly two decades investigating the mechanisms leading to white cell recruitment in cardiovascular and immune disorders. He and his team identified that a gas produced inside the body, nitric oxide, functions to reduce white blood cell recruitment and maintain bodies in a non-inflamed state. Dr. Kubes, who co-leads the Alberta Sepsis Network with Faculty of Medicine colleague Dr. Chip Doig, is currently examining how white cells and bacteria battle in blood vessels and how we can help defeat these pathogens.  The research is funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (now Alberta Innovates–Health Solutions).

“No one works in isolation and this award is about having great colleagues,” suggests Kubes.  “I want to thank everyone in my research program who made this possible, including all the funding agencies and especially Joan Snyder. In addition to a large endowment, she helped me to buy our very first spinning disk microscope which has truly revolutionized our ability to visualize the immune system in blood vessels and how it kills bacteria. Since that investment we now have the ability to see the immune system like no one else in the world.”   

Kubes is the first person from Alberta to be honoured with this award.